Thursday, February 24, 2005
Conversation on Publishing
I woke up early this morning thinking about books. Big surprise. Recently, this little blog was mentioned in a Writer's Digest article and I'm seeing a spike in readership among authors. So, with a nod to everyone who is new to blogs, and the book blogging sphere, here's a quick summation of one thread of the publishing conversation going on now among bloggers and readers about the state of publishing...
There seems to be universal agreement among publishers, booksellers, authors, and readers that books don't sell enough and everyone is not making enough, or barely making it.
Here are some of the best places to read the conversation and add to it...
MJ Rose - great author blog that gives the writer perspective on self-marketing and relationships with publishers. Rose has a strong journalism background and it shows in the quotes she manages to get from people. From MJ:
Book Angst 101 - Mad Max Perkins is the alias for an employee at one of the top publishers. S/he started the site to open dialogue among industry insiders about the state of publishing and how to fix it. (Unmasking Mad Max hasn't turned into an official sport yet, but my money still says Carl Lennertz is posing as an editor. He's known to have a few disguises.) The conversation at Book Angst is starting to take off as real people open up the publishing world for others to see. The comments sections gets interesting to hear writers and publishers speaking up. Writers beware, loss of innocence may be found here.
Fresh Eyes: A Bookseller's Journal - Bookseller Robert Gray works at Northshire Bookstore in Vermont. He started blogging in September 2004 and has consistently hit the right mark for giving the bookseller perspective on the industry. Open, honest, brutally funny takes on how books rise and fall, where the business takes wrong turns, and optimism for the future of how we can all hold it together.
The role here at Anthem Books has been to search out the great independent bookstores and booksellers and turn a flashlight on them for others to see. The blog started in July 2002 and has grown from there. I feel that if more people knew about the successful independents and their ideas, we would see more readers shopping there and more publishing insiders thinking of independents as the backbone of bookselling and a great venue for connecting books with readers. I'm a bookstore junkie who is obsessed with how bookstores work, and how they can work better. I use the blog to share what I find, highlight what I like, and connect people and ideas. That's what we're about, or at least that's what we're willing to admit to today.
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There seems to be universal agreement among publishers, booksellers, authors, and readers that books don't sell enough and everyone is not making enough, or barely making it.
Here are some of the best places to read the conversation and add to it...
MJ Rose - great author blog that gives the writer perspective on self-marketing and relationships with publishers. Rose has a strong journalism background and it shows in the quotes she manages to get from people. From MJ:
My whole effort on this blog...is to try to get more people thinking that perhaps the old methods, which everyone says are not successful in all but a few cases, need to be challenged and new ideas need to be tested.
Book Angst 101 - Mad Max Perkins is the alias for an employee at one of the top publishers. S/he started the site to open dialogue among industry insiders about the state of publishing and how to fix it. (Unmasking Mad Max hasn't turned into an official sport yet, but my money still says Carl Lennertz is posing as an editor. He's known to have a few disguises.) The conversation at Book Angst is starting to take off as real people open up the publishing world for others to see. The comments sections gets interesting to hear writers and publishers speaking up. Writers beware, loss of innocence may be found here.
Fresh Eyes: A Bookseller's Journal - Bookseller Robert Gray works at Northshire Bookstore in Vermont. He started blogging in September 2004 and has consistently hit the right mark for giving the bookseller perspective on the industry. Open, honest, brutally funny takes on how books rise and fall, where the business takes wrong turns, and optimism for the future of how we can all hold it together.
The role here at Anthem Books has been to search out the great independent bookstores and booksellers and turn a flashlight on them for others to see. The blog started in July 2002 and has grown from there. I feel that if more people knew about the successful independents and their ideas, we would see more readers shopping there and more publishing insiders thinking of independents as the backbone of bookselling and a great venue for connecting books with readers. I'm a bookstore junkie who is obsessed with how bookstores work, and how they can work better. I use the blog to share what I find, highlight what I like, and connect people and ideas. That's what we're about, or at least that's what we're willing to admit to today.
